Conventional disposable pull-on wearing articles such as diapers and training pants have front and rear waist regions opposed to each other and a crotch region extending between the waist regions and generally comprise a liquid-pervious inner sheet, a liquid-impervious outer sheet and a liquid-absorbent panel/core disposed between these two sheets extending across the crotch region into the front and rear waist regions to define a waist-hole and a pair of leg-holes.
In such conventional articles, transversely opposite side edges of the crotch region delineate circular arcs which are convex inwardly in a transverse direction of the article so that a transverse dimension of the crotch region is smaller than that of the front and rear waist regions and the article has a generally hourglass-shape as viewed in its unfolded state with the front and rear waist regions disjoined from each other. In this article, portions of the inner and outer sheets extending outwardly beyond the side edges of the panel/core in the transverse direction form a pair of side flaps to define leg-holes. Such wearing article is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Nos. 1999-104177A and 1999-155904A.
If the transverse dimension of the crotch region in such wearing article of prior art is larger than that of the wearer's crotch area between its thighs, the crotch region will not be properly placed against the wearer's crotch area and particularly the panel/core which conventionally has stiffness higher than that of the inner and outer sheets and a given thickness will inevitably become bulky and may create a feeling of discomfort against the wearer when is worn. To place the crotch region of the article properly in close contact with the wearer's crotch area, it may be contemplated that the crotch region is dimensioned to be equal to or smaller than the wearer's crotch area. However, the transverse dimension of the panel/core would be reduced in the crotch region as the transverse dimension of the crotch region is reduced, so the function to absorb bodily discharges in the crotch region would be unacceptably reduced, increasing an anxiety that leakage of bodily discharges might occur in the crotch region.
In average, the transverse dimension of the wearer's crotch area is in a range of 30–80 mm. In most of the wearing articles currently available in the market, the minimum transverse dimension of the core in the crotch region is dimensioned to be in a range of 100–200 mm and the transverse dimension of the crotch region inclusive of the side flaps is dimensioned to be in a range of 150–300 mm. In this manner, the transverse dimension of the crotch region is larger than the transverse dimension of the wearer's crotch area.
It is an object of this invention to provide a pants-type disposable wearing article improved so that its crotch region can be properly placed in close contact with a wearer's crotch area without any feeling of discomfort against the wearer and leakage of bodily discharges in the crotch region.